Tip from Cook's Illustrated: Steamed Mashed Potatoes

Kathryn's post on Secrets of Awesome Mashed Potatoes was a popular read last week, so a bunch of you must have mashed potatoes on your mind. That reminded us of a recent article from Cook's Illustrated that recommended steaming, not boiling, potatoes before you mash them...

The article addressed the idea of wanting a mashed potato recipe that allowed for more advance prep work, i.e. peeling the potatoes before cooking them. The problem is that potatoes' skins protect the starch granules that tend to burst during boiling, making potatoes gummy. No skins would equal more gumminess.

The author's solution was to steam the peeled potatoes and rinse them halfway through the cooking process. The bonus? The steamed, mashed potatoes were fluffier and needed less butter and cream to get the same richness as boiled, mashed potatoes. Hmm...

The Cook's Illustrated website requires membership to view full articles, but you can read the abstract here.

We haven't tried this method of mashed potatoes, since we tend to leave the skins on ours anyway, but we thought it was interesting. If you wanted to experiment, this Mashed Potatoes recipe from Nigella Lawson is as simple and classic as it gets. The ambitious out there might try it both ways to see if you really need less butter and cream when you peel and steam the potatoes.